


remains of the day

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, DJWifi, Eventual Happy Ending, Evil Queen Bee, F/M, Flash Fic, Implied Character Death, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, it might as well be straight apocalyptic honestly, not any of the main characters, semi-apocalyptic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-25 00:26:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16186283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: “Honey, I’m home,” Chat Noir calls cheerfully, swinging into one of the better-aired sections of the catacombs and collapsing his staff on the way in, leaning it against the crumbling bricks that mark their current lair.“You were gone a while,” Marinette says, looking up from where she and Tikki are fiddling with a handful of old cell phones. “Any luck?”Adrien shakes his head and slinks over, detransforming on the way so that Plagg can join them. Adrien doesn’t bother trying to keep his body language separate from his alter ego anymore- neither of them do. There’s no one left to care. “Nothing. No sign of them.”





	1. side a

**Author's Note:**

> i meant to write cute catacombs shenanigans, i absolutely did
> 
> that is not what i wrote.

“Honey, I’m home,” Chat Noir calls cheerfully, swinging into one of the better-aired sections of the catacombs and collapsing his staff on the way in, leaning it against the crumbling bricks that mark their current lair.

“You were gone a while,” Marinette says, looking up from where she and Tikki are fiddling with a handful of old cell phones. “Any luck?”

Adrien shakes his head and slinks over, detransforming on the way so that Plagg can join them. Adrien doesn’t bother trying to keep his body language separate from his alter ego anymore- neither of them do. There’s no one left to care. “Nothing. No sign of them.”

A piece of the phone Marinette’s trying too hard to revive breaks off in her hands and she sighs. “I was so sure that transmission was from somewhere in the city.”

“Don’t give up yet, Marinette,” Tikki pipes up, dropping her own phone to flit to her chosen’s shoulder. “Nino and Alya are tougher than that, especially together.”

“It could still have been from here, anyway,” Plagg puts in, diving in agitated circles as Adrien goes to dig in their packs for his cheese. Between their current location and Plagg’s restless mid-air wheeling he looks like a bat kwami more than he does a cat. “We don’t stay put for more than a few nights, so why should they?”

“I just wish we could raise them on the communicators,” Marinette frets, sighing and leaning into her partner’s warmth as Adrien drops down to sit next to her.

“I still can’t believe you gave both of them Miraculous before me,” Adrien teases her, reaching up to accept the bit of cheese Plagg breaks off for him. Food’s gotten hard to come by and they prioritize their recharges, so they’ve both gotten used to sharing their kwami’s supplies. That’s not so bad for Marinette- she likes cookies well enough- but Adrien gives the cheese a forlorn look before he eats it. It’s hard enough to find any food at all in Paris now and they’ve learned that their kwami can benefit as well if their chosen eat the same food they use to recharge, so they don’t complain about it very much.

Marinette snorts even as she ducks her head into her partner’s shoulder and inhales, grateful beyond words that none of them are alone. Considering what had happened, they’d had to get used to each other’s identities quickly while on the run, and it had gone a lot better than either of them had expected.  “I tried to give Alya the _earrings_ , of course she was first. And Nino was a matter of circumstance. Besides, you were a little tied up at the time!”

“Yes but you didn’t know that,” he protests, leaning back against the wall and tugging her after him. There isn’t much space in their current hideout- they can both stand up and stretch, but if they grow any more than they have that won’t be true anymore.

Neither one of them has grown at all in the past two years so that’s probably not going to be an issue. It does make them both wish that they’d asked Master Fu more questions when they’d still had the chance.

“I knew you were grounded,” Marinette reminds him, reaching over so that she can fling their single threadbare blanket over both of them. It’s hard verging on impossible to determine night and day anymore, but typically if one of them comes back from a solo run they figure it’s time for a rest. They don’t do many solo runs; they’re too nerve wracking not just for the one who goes but also for the one who stays behind. Marinette had really been hoping she’d be able to catch their mystery signal again today, though. “Not that that’s ever stopped you.”

Plagg snorts.

“You are an enabler,” Adrien tells him fondly.

“I wanted to give you the next one,” Marinette says softly, curling into his side more. “Maybe if I hadn’t lost it…”

“Marinette, no,” he says firmly, shaking her slightly. Tikki takes flight briefly, then resettles on Adrien’s shoulder. Plagg groans and flits over to drape himself across Marinette’s lap instead and she reaches down to pet him automatically. “You couldn’t have known.”

“It wasn’t so bad when it was just Hawkmoth, though,” Marinette protests. “Maybe if he didn’t have Queen Bee we could have won.”

“Her choices are not your fault,” Adrien says firmly, hooking his chin over her head. “She didn’t have to agree to help him.” His voice softens. “I didn’t.”

“I’m sorry, kitty,” Marinette says quietly. “I wish we’d realized sooner.”

“You _did_ realise sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”

“No one wants to think badly of their family.” She snuggles closer and closes her eyes, both of them trusting that their partner and their kwamis will keep them safe in the catacombs overnight. Tomorrow they’ll both head out into the ruins of Paris again- they still haven’t found the rest of their team, and they need Carapace and Rena Rouge if they want to defeat Hawkmoth and Queen Bee.

They also both just want Alya and Nino back. They don’t have many people left.


	2. side b

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there wasn't supposed to be more _what is happening_  
>  (i wanted nino and alya to be okay)

"I'm back, babe," Alya says, letting the curtain that they're using in place of a door drop back into place in the window that they're using in place of an actual entrance.  
  
Nino barely glances up from the fire he has going in the trash can they'd dragged into their commandeered kitchen the night before. Random fires aren't exactly uncommon in the city these days, but it's still wiser to keep them hidden, just in case. "What'd Max say?"  
  
"The beacons got destroyed again," Alya says, stretching widely before reaching over Nino to snag one of the still-hot cans from beside the fire. She props herself against the wall and knocks the can open on an outcropping of brick before continuing. "Someone's out there though. Two of them deactivated ahead of time."  
  
Nino straightens. "You think it's them?"  
  
"Man, I hope so," Alya says, rattling her can of beans. "Any other groups are just gonna be Jagged's lot all over again." For whatever reason, people who had been akumatized before had proven more resistant when Hawkmoth and Queen Bee had razed Paris. That had left them with a very mixed bag of survivors in the initial few months.  
  
Jagged Stone, Fang, and Penny had been a lot of things- they'd gotten an entire concert to safety between them, they're largely responsible for how much of Nino and Alya's class is still running around out there somewhere, and they'd bought Chat Noir and Ladybug time during many of the initial attacks- but one thing they hadn't been was quiet. They've been gone for a long time now, and their tiny encampment of survivors gone with them.  
  
Ivan and Mylene had been in that group. Rose, Juleka, and Luka had only left it a week before the battle that had taken everyone else.  
  
Nino and Alya haven't stayed with anyone for more than a day or two since then. It isn't worth the risk. They stay in touch with the others as well as they can, but almost everyone in their tiny network has split into twos and threes and keep their contact through a complicated system of beacons and through Nath and Alix's graffiti. They haven't seen Alya's family in a year. Nino hopes Anansi was able to get them out of the city altogether, although the mile-wide dead zone that hems in all that's left of Paris makes that a harsh prospect.  
  
"No, Al," Nino says. "I'm sure Chat Noir and Ladybug are still in the city. I meant… do you think it's _them_."  
  
"Oh," Alya says softly, peeling herself away from the wall to take a seat at the battered table. This was someone's home, once. "I didn't- sorry, Nino." She inhales and sets her can down. "I don't know. I think it's them, but I don't know if that's just because of how badly I _want_ it to be them."  
  
"Yeah." Nino fetches his own can and joins her at the table. "Yeah, I know what you mean."  
  
Akuma victims have held out better than the rest of Paris.  
  
They haven't seen their best friends since that first attack that devastated the city and forced Chat Noir and Ladybug into hiding, and Marinette and Adrien have never been akumatized.  
  
"Do you think they have our Miraculous?" Nino asks, switching their cans. Alya sighs and opens his before switching them back. She doesn't miss that Nino's still talking like their friends are definitely their heroes, but she wants it to be true, too.  
  
"We'd know if Hawkface had them," Alya points out tiredly. They've had this discussion more than once. "No way would he give up the power of illusions."  
  
"That's assuming he has anyone left to give them to." Nino tilts his whole head back and swallows half the can of beans in one gulp. Alya makes a face at him. "He didn't exactly leave himself a lot of options. I still think Bee's akumatized."  
  
Alya scowls. "I still think Bee's Chloe."  
  
"She can be Chloe _and_ be akumatized," Nino counters. "I don't know why else Miraculous Cure wouldn't be working, and we still don't know exactly how Miraculous work." He waves at Alya, then back at himself. "Case in point."  
  
Alya hunches over her can with a sigh. "If it _is_ them I bet they're not aging either. Especially since they do have their Miraculous."  
  
"Great, we can all be weirdos together," Nino says. "Any other news?"  
  
"Yeah, actually. Nathaniel got ambitious. He and Alix tagged Notre Dame." Alya downs her own can of beans, burps, and drops it back onto the table before rocking her chair back on its hind legs. "It's huge. They did Ladybug and Chat Noir again, but they've got us in the background, babe. As Carapace and Rena Rouge, I mean. I know he and Alix don't know it's us but… maybe it'll be enough for them to realise we're still here."  
  
"Nath left clues again?" Nino asks, finishing off his can and getting up from the table. He picks up the trash can lid resting against the wall and smothers their fire with it.  
  
"Yeah, so we should at least try to stay here for a couple days." Alya gets up too, following Nino into the next room, where they've kicked enough furniture and bedding around to build a decent blanket fort.  
  
Their world ended two years ago. They can build as many blanket forts as they like.  
  
Nino takes first watch since Alya ran their errands, but she feels like her head's only just hit the pillow when he's shaking her back awake, the trash can lid in his hand again.  
  
"Someone's here," he hisses, and Alya bolts upright, breathing hard and straining to hear.  
  
They stay hidden- they've had enough close calls to be wary- but then they hear their visitors more clearly.  
  
"It might not mean anything, kitty. No one else knows who they really are."  
  
"I know, my Lady. But there's still a chance. We've been looking for them for so long now."  
  
Alya meets Nino's eyes and waits for him to nod. Looking just as stunned as she feels, he rises slowly to his feet and pulls back the blanket.  
  
And Alya sees him freeze and then start to tear up.  
  
Chat Noir and Ladybug are climbing in their window.


	3. reunion tour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think i've accepted by now that i wrote waaaaay more of this than i ever meant to

"Graffiti is not exactly a solid clue, Chat," Ladybug says as she follows her partner up to the ruined house. "And that's if it even is Alix."  
  
"I'm sure it's her," Chat Noir insists. "You should know, you were in their art class. Only Nathaniel and Alix would even know to use that signature, and you know that was Max's code, besides. Who else even knows his code outside of our class? Why would they even know that he has one?" After all, like Alix and Nathaniel's joint signature, Max's code only exists because Mme. Bustier had run more than one akuma safety clinic and their classmates had all gotten very creative while coming up with clever strategies.  
  
No one had ever really thought they'd have to use them all at once.  
  
Their class had ultimately been some of the best prepared when everything went wrong. They don't know anymore whether that was a coincidence or not; since the day they'd had to reveal their identities to each other if they wanted to have any hope of surviving in their broken city they've both gotten suspicious of anything that looks like a coincidence.  
  
"It might not mean anything, kitty. No one else knows who they really are." Ladybug turns back to offer her partner a hand and hauls him easily over the crumbling windowsill. There's a promisingly recent boot print in the plaster dust.  
  
"I know, my Lady." Chat Noir straightens and brushes himself off, his tail flicking with the agitation he's so clearly trying not to show in the rest of his frame. Tiny twitches are still leaking through. "But there's still a chance. We've been looking for them for so long now." He tilts his head and stiffens as his ears twitch towards a noise that hasn't registered properly with Ladybug yet and she automatically moves to his side, by now long used to relying on his more sensitive senses for early warnings. "There is someone in here."  
  
Two people darken the crumbling doorway into the next room seconds later and the two heroes can't help but drop into battle stances before it properly registers. Then it does register- that's Nino, and Alya too, and Nino is crying-  
  
"You're _okay_ ," Nino says, lurching forward and throwing his arms around Chat Noir, Alya still frozen in the doorway behind him.  
  
"Alya?" Ladybug says faintly as her partner's arms slowly raise to hug Nino back.She'd hoped, but- it's been two years. She hadn't dared to hope too hard. Even now, even faced with her best friend (besides her partner and now roommate), Ladybug isn't sure.  
  
From the way Chat Noir is holding Nino, like the other boy will shatter if he lets go, he's not having the same problem.  
  
Alya takes a deep breath, not taking her eyes off Ladybug, and says slowly, "What's the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?"  
  
Nino and Chat Noir both snort in unison but don't move away from each other.  
  
Alya wouldn't have told anyone else about the vow they swore or the passwords they'd come up with when they'd been fourteen (the first time) and giggling late into the night, knowing that they'd likely have to use their codes during an akuma attack, never expecting anything of this magnitude. Smiling and taking a step forward, Ladybug says softly, "Music and cats."  
  
" _Mari_ ," Alya breathes, and throws herself into Ladybug's arms.  
  
"Really, my Lady?" Chat Noir says, but he's tightening his hold on Nino even as he glances over at her.  
  
"Well it's not much of a code phrase if everyone knows the answer, kitten," Ladybug teases, even as she gently pries Alya away to study her. "Oh I have missed you. Are you- is that a Chat Noir hoodie?" She blinks. Alya is dressed head-to-toe in Chat Noir clothing, and when she takes a good look at him she realises Nino is similarly decked out.  
  
Alya pounds lightly on her chest. "We looked everywhere for you!" She lowers her head. "Everyone's wearing Chat Noir and Ladybug stuff. We all thought, maybe… maybe the confusion would keep you both safer." She glances away. "And it… made a lot of us feel better. Kim and Alix raided a bunch of stores for gear early on, and we all felt better wearing it. I know we're both dressed like your partner," she gestures down at her clothes, and Ladybug notes with amusement that Alya's even wearing an admirable imitation of Chat Noir's boots, "But, I mean, black is a lot easier to hide. Alix runs around in Ladybug stuff all the time but she's a lot better at vanishing than most of us are." She tosses her hair back. "That is, except for you two!"  
  
"We don't change back much aboveground," Chat Noir says slowly, his tail curling up to wave slightly. "Everyone _is_ looking for us."  
  
"We were worried, dudes," Nino says, finally letting go of Chat Noir, taking a step back and wiping at his eyes. "We've lost… a lot of people."  
  
"We know," Ladybug says. "We tried to get as many out as we could, but we… We only made a target of whoever we tried to help." She reaches for Chat Noir without looking only for him to already be reaching back. They link hands on instinct more than conscious thought. "But we need you. We can't do this without you."  
  
"That's our line," Alya teases, pulling away from Ladybug. Her eyes are wet, too. "But yeah, of course we want to help. Lead the way."  
  
"It's not anything fancy, and we can't bring anyone but you two," Ladybug warns them even as she checks that the coast is clear and waves everyone after her, Chat Noir faithfully bringing up the rear. "We were more focused on finding somewhere to hide than on anything else."  
  
Alya hefts her backpack and hands Nino his. "You're in luck, we're pretty used to breaking and entering by now and it's still too weird to sleep in someone's bed when I don't know what happened to them. Honestly, the last bed I slept in was yours, right before your parents got out."  
  
Ladybug stops.  
  
"Her parents?" Chat Noir says quietly when it becomes clear she isn't going to say anything.  
  
Alya nods, looking slowly between them, and then looks a little heartbroken as realisation hits. "Oh, Mari. Your parents got _out_. They didn't want to go- they went with Mme. Chamack because it was the only chance they had to get Manon out. I… I told her I'd stay and look for you."  
  
"And they were all right with that?" Chat Noir says slowly, even as the four of them steal down a series of alleyways. Rubble blocks them off from the main streets for most of the path- Chat Noir and Ladybug take turns moving debris to let them through. It's not long before the leaning buildings on either side of them begin to obscure the sky and Nino can't help darting nervous glances up at them.  
  
Nino snorts. "Of course not. Her parents would have taken everyone in Paris if they could have. They would have taken _you_ , superheroes or not. That's just what Alya yelled after them before we ran- Bee was catching up, someone had to play distraction."  
  
"That was dangerous!" Ladybug protests as she waves Chat Noir over to her. Together, they kneel at either side of what looked like another random piece of rubble, both of them straining to lift it even with their combined strength. It shifts just enough to let them all slip through an opening one at a time.  
  
"You're one to talk," Alya snorts, even as she drops down first. She's still looking around with so much curiosity that Nino nearly drops in on top of her before she moves. "You've been in the catacombs this whole time?"  
  
"Yeah," Ladybug grunts as she pulls Chat Noir down after her. Both of them turn back to push the slab back into place. "It's been our best chance to stay out of sight."  
  
"Dudes," Nino says, moving in close to Alya before the light vanishes. "These weren't stable _before_ Hawkmutt let Bee spend all her time wrecking shit. Also, how do you get anywhere? It's a pitch black maze in here!"  
  
"I can see in the dark," Chat Noir reminds them. Nino feels him move past them before he says, softer than before, "Claws in."  
  
The kwami that whirls into existence blinks luminous eyes at them, then scoffs and turns back to his holder. "They were _together_ and it took you two this long?"  
  
Ladybug sighs. "And as for the maze part, the kwami know the way. Spots off, Tikki."  
  
There's still very little ambient light, cut down to none once Plagg dives into hiding in Adrien's tattered shirt, but it's enough to confirm that it _is_ Adrien and Marinette.  
  
"Dude," Nino says again, turning to where Adrien was standing a moment ago, keeping Alya at his back without thinking about it. "I was- I was sure it was you, but still-"  
  
"I know," Adrien says, still softly, and demonstrates that he can still see well enough when he hugs Nino again. "We've been looking for you guys, too."  
  
"Come on," Marinette calls back, moving forward through the darkness. "Follow Tikki- once we're back at the hideout, we have a lot to discuss."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> marinette's response to alya's code is part of the phrase 'there are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats,' attributed to albert schweitzer
> 
> also, none of the code phrases my family have used make any sense for this lot. 
> 
> ALSO, dear gods, do not play in unstable underground structures. do not.


	4. backstage passes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well. this did not stay short.

It's true that the hideout isn't much to look at, but Nino and Alya have been bedding down in the hollowed ruins of other people's lives for months on end. Just the fact that the tiny cavern they duck into is lived-in is worlds better than they've grown to expect.  
  
It's only a couple of linked caves dug out from the side of the existing catacombs, shored up with more slabs of rubble that Alya suspects the heroes dragged down from above. The rough nature of the walls makes her think that the area might have been Cataclysmed into existence- not a very safe prospect, not when even now she's all too aware of how easily everything could quite literally collapse on their heads, but if this is how Adrien and Marinette have kept themselves hidden this long she isn't about to complain.  
  
"We can't stay here much longer," Marinette says as she goes around lighting a handful of torches, killing Alya's budding theories before they can start to gain ground. In the flickering torchlight Marinette and Adrien both are pale and drawn, the rips in their clothing and tangles in their hair much more noticeable; underground living has clearly taken a toll on them. They look a lot more wild than their aboveground counterparts. Alya honestly isn't sure how much of what she sees is old bruises and how much is ground-in dirt. Holy shit, can superpowered teenagers go feral? Is that a _thing_ now? (Because she's pretty sure non-superpowered teenagers can. She knows Alix, and living in an actual building has not made that girl _tame_ ).  
  
Marinette is still talking. Alya drags her thoughts back out of their wild tangent to listen. "We usually move on every few days but we thought you might be close this time, so we've been here a little longer." Marinette wraps her arms around herself, frowning, only to relent when Adrien reaches over and tugs her arms loose again. Both kwami have been leading their group, but now that they've arrived Plagg darts to Marinette's shoulder and Tikki darts to Adrien's, and Alya has to blink at that for a moment before she realises that _yes_ , the kwami apparently did that on purpose.  
  
There's only two rooms down here. The main one, the one that holds them all, is nearly empty but for the torches and a giant stone slab in the center that probably serves as a table. There are two packs and bottled water against the far wall, but not much else. The entrance to the next room is a rough-edged hole halfway up said wall that Tikki and Plagg vanish into- Alya's not even sure the rest of them can get into it without their own superpowers. That appears to be where Marinette and Adrien sleep, burrowed into the dark like some kind of monstrous bats; no wonder no one's seen them in so long. Wrappers from various cheeses and empty boxes that once contained cookies litter the stone table. There are no crumbs (no one who's still living in Paris ever leaves crumbs).  
  
Nino takes one look and drops his backpack to start rummaging through it. "You are both- this cannot be healthy." He comes up with two cans, this time the chicken noodle ones they've been trying to save, and straightens up to throw one at Adrien's head.  
  
Adrien catches it with no visible effort but he looks bemused as he brings it close to inspect. "We aren't sick."  
  
"And that is a miracle," Alya says, dropping her backpack as well. "Y'all know that we mortals need the _sun_ , right? You know that you aren't actually the Batman?"  
  
"Actually-" Adrien starts, a glint of humour flashing in his (greener than she remembers) eyes, but he stops guiltily when Marinette elbows him in the side with a long-suffering sigh.  
  
Alya eyes them both with appreciation. It's good to see them so willing to be in each other's space out of costume. "I mean, it's at least good to know that you two have finally got _that_ whole situation sorted out, but seriously? Marinette, you lived in a bakery, you can't both have been eating this badly!"  
  
"Babe, your mother was a chef and we've been living off Undine's stolen canned goods and energy bars," Nino points out wryly.  
  
"Undine?" Marinette asks, turning just in time to easily catch the can Nino throws at her. "Kim's girlfriend Undine?" She settles to her knees beside the table and waves for everyone to do the same. Adrien takes a seat next to her, leaving Nino and Alya to sit together across from them. "How much of our class made it, exactly? We've seen people and clues here and there but we haven't been able to safely check."  
  
Nino glances around again at that, hiding his frown with years of practice. Sure, everyone's had to change over the past couple of years, but Adrien's never exactly been a fan of small enclosed spaces. He actually doesn't think that Marinette is, either. He doesn't really think these are their current living quarters by choice. Not for the first time, he wishes they'd all been able to safely join Alix's family in the Louvre, where he's been able to sleep in more than one empty gallery on occasion, but the more people they have in one place the more dangerous it grows for everyone and that's already one of the larger encampments. And though the Louvre group has largely been left alone Nino is coldly sure that Hawkmoth _knows_ they're there- he thinks the entire reason they _have_ been left alone is likely to try and lure Ladybug and Chat Noir.  Adrien and Marinette can't go there.  
  
"Most of them made it," Alya says, even as she nods to the can in Marinette's hands. "Eat that, we ate not that long ago. Undine moves around, but she's mostly at the TV station with Max and Kim and Markov. Alix's family took over the Louvre with Marc and Nathaniel, and Rose is with Juleka's family- they held out on the boat for a while but they went into hiding a few months back, so I don't know where they might be based now." She shrugs at her friend's expressions. "We were all at the concert, you know? Penny's good at getting and keeping people organized. Also, turns out even during a riot no one wants to mess with the group with the crocodile."  
  
"They're gone, though," Adrien says quietly, looking pained, and Alya recalls that they were at that concert, too, right up until they'd both split from the others- just before Ladybug and Chat Noir had shown up. If her friends weren't who they are, they'd likely have been with them the whole time. Marinette would almost definitely be _leading_ one of their splinter groups.  
  
If their friends weren't who they are, a lot more people would be dead.  
  
Nino nods at Adrien- it's been long enough that he can talk about it now. "Jagged and Penny and a few of the others, yeah. But he and Ivan and the others bought time for a lot of us to get away and we scattered. Max helps us keep in touch, kind of, but smaller groups seemed safer after that."  
  
"Can't argue with that," Marinette sighs, knocking her shoulder gently against Adrien's. "I don't remember the last time we even _talked_ to anyone else." Her words are light, but her eyes are dark when she glances across the table. "It was starting to get a little maddening, even for us."  
  
Adrien catches hold of her hand, but nods in agreement. The flickering torchlight casts shadows over them both that make it much easier to envision Chat Noir and Ladybug across the table than might otherwise be true. "There's only so many times we can go over the same plans."  
  
"Hey," Plagg says, whirling out of the shadows to land on the table, kicking up several wrappers. "Don't we count?"  
  
Marinette rolls her eyes and reaches out to him, holding her arm steady until Plagg clambers to her shoulder. "You know you do, Plagg. But we've been confiding in you two since before we were talking to each other. It's… not the same."  
  
In spite of everything, Alya's glad to see them so comfortable with each other. Ladybug and Chat Noir always have been, or at least it's always seemed like it, while Marinette and Adrien were a different picture before; but Alya can't imagine what the last two years would have been like without Nino at her side, and she's happy beyond words that they've had each other.  
  
"Guess we can all make new plans together, then," Nino says, blinking maybe a little more than strictly normal. He looks at how close together Marinette and Adrien have drawn, then slumps into Alya's side himself with a long, drawn-out sigh. "Honestly we've been in pretty erratic contact with the others. We move around a lot more than most of them. We-" He hesitates. "When you first vanished, we weren't totally sure Hawkface didn't know who we were. Like, we believe in you, but a lot of people thought he'd caught you and it didn't seem…smart to ignore them."  
  
"He didn't catch us," Marinette assures them. Plagg snorts from his perch. "Hush, you, he didn't."  
  
"Closer call than it should have been, though," Plagg retorts, although he's evidently not bothered enough to move. "You know better than that, kid. You _knew_ your dad had to be lying to you."  
  
Nino shifts uncomfortably, then blurts out, "I'm really sorry I don't know what happened to your dad, dude. I mean, Marinette's parents, they put us up for a while, and they were helping us rescue people, they were one of the rescue teams early on, so we were with them for a while, but I never heard anything-" The Agreste mansion is, astonishingly, still standing. But Bee's frequently _in_ it, so no one can get close. Once they knew Adrien wasn't there they'd had no real compelling reason to try- they owe no loyalty to Gabriel Agreste, only to his son. Nino's not too sure anyone's left who owes loyalty to Gabriel Agreste except maybe Adrien himself.  
  
"It's all right, Nino," Adrien interrupts, trying to tug his hand away from Marinette, then settling for reaching for Nino with his free hand when she won't let go. "That was never your responsibility. And…" He hesitates, then sighs. "And I know my father's still in the city. He's fine." An odd bitter note creeps into his voice and Nino almost dares to hope that Adrien's actually realised how lousy a guardian his dad has really been.  
  
Alya blinks at Adrien as Tikki, too, flies out of the hole in the wall to join them. The ladybug kwami glances around, then darts down to settle on Adrien's outstretched arm rather than fight with Plagg for space. "Wait, your dad is _here_ … and you've been living in the catacombs?" Sure, she'd crashed at the zoo more than a few times, but she and Nino have crashed just about _everywhere_ more than a few times. From the sound of it Marinette and Adrien have been down in the catacombs the entire past two years.  
  
Adrien inhales and Marinette lets go of his hand, but only to loop an arm around his shoulders and shoot Alya a glance that, distressingly, she can't read. Alya doesn't know if that's because it's full of emotions she didn't expect to see, or if it's just because she doesn't know her best friend as well as she used to, but she does her best to push that aside to focus when Adrien speaks up again. "My father is _why_ we've been down here the whole time."  
  
"I thought you were hiding from Hawkjerk?" Nino says, confused, and Alya gets it first.  
  
Maybe it's not a fair conclusion. It's not as though there weren't other adults caught up in Paris' decay. There were those who'd been akumatized, like Jagged, like Penny, like Alya's own father; but there were those who weren't as well, like Marinette's parents, or Alya's mother. Even if they keep to the pattern of akuma victims simply handling the city's downfall better, Gabriel Agreste has _been_ akumatized.  
  
But one look at her friend's expressions confirms it for her. "Your… dad's Hawkface. Isn't he."  
  
Adrien's shoulders slump. Tikki whirls up to his shoulder and Plagg relocates to the table in front of him. "Yeah. Yeah, he…" He draws back the arm that was reaching for Nino, cradling Plagg instead, who lets him. "My father's been… Hawkmoth this whole time."  
  
He probably expects censure, from the way his body language is closing off and the way that he's drawing closer to Marinette and their kwami.  
  
He definitely does not expect the alarmed hiss Nino and Alya both let out at the name 'Hawkmoth.'  
  
It probably looks ridiculous from an outside perspective; the two teenagers hiss in unison, and their friend rocks back on his heels, snatching at his belt for a weapon he doesn't have on him and looking to Marinette for backup automatically. Marinette's already on her feet, too, unarmed but falling into a fighting stance before blinking and tossing her hair out of her eyes as she re-registers that there is no threat, it's just Nino and Alya that she and her partner are bristling at across a dark, damp ruin of a room.  
  
"Sorry," Alya says shakily. "We're bad enough, I can't imagine what your reflexes are like."  
  
" _Overactive_ ," Marinette says, pinching the bridge of her nose as she sinks back down. Adrien stays standing a moment longer, still tense, but then she reaches up to tug at his sleeve and he returns to their previous position, too. "But I know what set _us_ off. What was with you?"  
  
"You said Voldemort's name," Alya explains.  
  
She's greeted by two blank stares.  
  
Tikki giggles.  
  
"I like her," Plagg announces, climbing from Adrien's shoulder to the top of his head, not bothering to fly even though it would be faster. "We should keep her."  
  
"He's not Voldemort," Adrien says, but weakly.  
  
Plagg snorts, draped over his hair. "Kid. He tried to pull a 'join me and we can rule together' on you. I was _there_."  
  
"He _what_?" Nino says, understandably upset. "No wonder you're still underground… oh shit. He knows it's you?"  
  
Adrien shakes his head. "I know he suspects, but we never confirmed it. But… either he thinks it's me, or he thinks I'm dead. I don't think it really matters which at this point." He's not meeting anyone's eyes anymore and Marinette's crowding closer to him.  
  
"Okay." Alya gestures at him. "Okay, we've… been doing the Voldemort thing for two years and I don't think we can stop now, sorry, but. That is so much more messed up than I imagined. Adrien, he's tried to _kill_ you! Does he _know_ he's tried to kill you?"  
  
Adrien's hands clench into fists at his side. He doesn't raise his head.  
  
"Alya," Marinette says sharply. "Stop it!" There's a command in her voice that Alya's only ever heard before from Ladybug, not from her best friend, and Marinette's eyes have gone flinty and sharp. Alya jerks back in pure reaction.   
  
Nino's hand covers Alya's as he tilts his own head down, his ragged hat obscuring his face from their friends as he says softly, "Pretty sure Sunshine knows, babe."  
  
Still reeling a little from the unaccustomed bite in Marinette's voice, Alya takes a moment to really look at Adrien. He's glaring at the table, kind of, but he looks more lost than angry. Both kwami are close to him and now that she's paying attention Alya can see the way he's almost huddling into Marinette's side. That alone causes enough cognitive dissonance for her to really step back and reconsider the situation.  
  
She's been coming at this conversation like they've only been out of each other's lives for a long weekend, like they'd only been on an extended break from school, like they could pick right back up where they left off. She knows better than that, or at least she _should_. There's a gulf between them now born of two long years of fear and trauma.  
  
She and Nino aren't the people they were. They've adjusted, but they have hair-trigger nerves, too; they have their watch rotation and their shitty Hawkmoth jokes and even their sporadic contact with their classmates to carry them through bad days. They've had regular visits to the other encampments to keep them sane, but even with that bulwark they have days where it's hard to dig up the motivation to keep going, hard to remember why they should.  
  
Marinette and Adrien have spent that time nearly completely isolated, effectively trapped underground, and with the full knowledge of who Hawkmoth actually is- and that on top of the knowledge that he's more than willing to see them both dead (Bee is _violent_ , and Hakwmoth is _so much worse_ than he used to be). _And_ the two of them are expected to, somehow, fix everything. Their 'bad days' are probably on an entirely different level.  
  
Nino takes his hand away from Alya's and rubs at his face. "This entire situation is messed up, yo? Let's just… focus on what we can do now."  
  
"You sure?" Adrien bites out, his eyes flashing impossibly greener for a moment as he glances up through his bangs. His hair's the same length, just like Nino and Alya's hair is the same length it's been for two years now, but his is Chat Noir shaggy now. Nino supposes that makes sense; hair products haven't exactly been anyone's priority and their friends are practical people. "Your girlfriend doesn't want to pry into my family situation any more first?"  
  
"Kitty, you know she didn't mean it like that," Marinette says softly, touching him gently on the arm, and Adrien subsides, his eyes flickering back to normal.  
  
"How…" Nino swallows, because that's new, but he knows now from Alix and Jalil that while the Miraculous aren't the only magic in the city they're the most _powerful_ and these two most of all. With Marc and Nathaniel's help Jalil has dug up every scrap of information they could find that had the faintest possibility of being about Ladybug and Chat Noir and Nino's never forgotten the sheer level of destruction detailed in some of those scrolls. He's entirely too aware, now, that there's a _reason_ his friend's Miraculous come as a pair. "You said you're usually transformed."  
  
Marinette slumps. "Not always around each other, but a lot of the time, yeah." She glares at Alya as she adds, "It's not like Chat can hide."  
  
"Hey, down, girl," Alya says sharply, too rattled to ask about the name thing (and she's immediately pretty sure it is a _thing_ ). "I was shocked and I reacted badly, okay?" She shakes her head. "Look, as far as I'm concerned, the last I knew you could barely _talk_ to him and he was oblivious. I'm still adjusting, all right?" She breathes out hard, not quite willing to believe the way they're butting heads. She's been looking for Marinette for years. She never intended to argue with her on the first night.  
  
She'd never thought it possible.  
  
"I think we should rest before we discuss anything," Nino says slowly. As long as he's been looking forward to reuniting with their friends, there's a lot going on that he wasn't prepared for. His friends are a lot more… _damaged_ than he'd expected.  
  
(But then, he supposes that's true for him and Alya, too).  
  
Everyone turns to him as he speaks up, even the kwami.  
  
Nino gulps but doesn't back down. "We all have kind of a lot to process, right? But at least we're all together again. I just think- maybe we should get some sleep and then we'll all be thinking clearer. I can take first watch, if that helps?"  
  
Marinette shrugs, much less hostile towards Nino, which leaves Alya feeling strange and off-balance. "Tikki usually takes first watch, but that's probably easier than figuring out a new rotation. If that's all right with you, kitty?"  
  
"Yeah, sure," Adrien mutters, before stretching and saying, "Plagg, claws out." Moments later Chat Noir pushes back from the table and, without meeting anyone's eyes, leaps into the hole in the wall and vanishes.  
  
"Does he usually go claws-out to sleep?" Nino asks, staring after him.  
  
Marinette winces. "The first shelter came down on our heads, and the suits are all that saved us, so yeah. Not always, but at least one of us tends to sleep transformed. Just in case." She darts a worried glance behind them, shoving away from the makeshift table herself as she too clearly feels the need to go after her partner. "We might both be, tonight. Not that we don't trust you, it's just…" She trails off with a tired sigh. "It's hard after so long. You know?"  
  
Nino carefully doesn't look at Alya. "You know, I thought we did. Now I'm not so sure." Somehow, out of the city's destruction, he and Alya had found a functioning if strange support system. Even knowing no one's been in touch with the heroes it had somehow never occurred to him that _they haven't_ , because every brief sighting of Chat Noir and Ladybug aboveground terminates in widespread destruction and drives the heroes right back into hiding. Neither one of them likes being confined or alone and they haven't had a choice. That kind of isolation and creeping fear leaves a lasting effect.  
  
He wonders uneasily if that's been Hawkmoth's plan all along.  
  
And then something in Nino's train of thought catches his attention again- neither one of them likes being confined or alone, and Chat Noir just climbed into a literal hole in the wall, and Ladybug's getting ready to join him.  
  
"I thought he didn't like small spaces," Nino says quietly, nodding at the wall rather than looking directly at either of the girls. He does his best to keep his voice down but really, Chat Noir's hearing is probably more than good enough that it doesn't matter.  
  
Marinette's shoulders slump, as though she started to shrug and gave up midway through the motion. "He doesn't. _We_ don't. They hide us, though, and that's more important now."  
  
Nino doesn't know what to say to that. She's right, is the thing; he has no doubt that if the two heroes tried to sleep in any of the places he and Alya have found aboveground Hawkmoth and Bee would be all over them. He still doesn't like it.  
  
"Spots on," Marinette says, tiredly, and Ladybug jumps through the wall after her partner.  
  
Alya doesn't move for long moments, staring at the wall and the flickering shadows. "None of us are in great shape anymore, are we." She shakes herself, moving to find a spot against the wall to curl up for Nino's watch, and her eyes flick from the dark hole to Nino and back. "I feel like we don't really know them anymore."  
  
"I guess we don't," Nino says quietly, scooting back from the table so that he can rest his back against the wall, tucking his pack after himself to keep it close. "Did you notice he's not even going by Adrien anymore?"  
  
Alya winces and hugs her own pack close. "Yeah. I can't blame him. Holy _shit_ , Nino."  
  
For a few long minutes all Nino can do is look at her. Alya's the least changed of the four of them, and Nino has a pretty good idea why; Alya's known from the start that her family's as safe as she personally could assure. (Nino can't think about his own family anymore). Alya's strong in her own right, in every way that counts, but she's also had less heartbreak than the rest of them.  
  
He has no idea what to say to her now, because he thinks she expected their friends to be unchanged, and Nino's never expected that. Everyone's changed. People who didn't aren't _around_ anymore.  
  
(That's probably what everyone else thinks happened to Chloe and Sabrina. Nino doesn't think that's what happened to Chloe at all, but Nino is one of the people who's tried to face Bee before, and it had gone horribly awry. He knows Sabrina's gone, and the mayor, and Mme. Bustier, and anyone else who might have had a chance at talking Chloe down. There's a reason he's so sure that Bee _is_ Chloe).  
  
"Get some more sleep, Al," he says finally, turning so that he has eyes on the entrance. "We can ask them about the other Miraculous in the morning." Not that he has any idea how they'll know when it's morning, but he's not sure how else to phrase it. How have those two been _doing_ this so long?  
  
Alya's head thumps back against the rough stone as she exhales and mutters agreement.  
  
Ladybug and Chat Noir must still be awake and listening, though, because it's not long after that two kwami come flying from the depression in the wall.  
  
"Trixx!" Alya cries out, delight and trepidation warring in her voice, and Trixx slams into her chosen's hands without ever slowing down.  
  
"Alya!" the kwami chirps, rolling around Alya's palms before hopping upright, hovering in the air and darting forward and back unsteadily. "Alya I _missed_ you!"  
  
Nino watches as Wayzz flies to him, a lot more sedately, and then settles on his pack. The little turtle doesn't say anything at first, inspecting Nino closely until Nino holds out his hand and Wayzz hops up.  
  
"I missed you, little dude," Nino says quietly.  
  
Wayzz flutters into the air briefly, then lands right back on Nino's hand. His agitation is a much quieter display than Trixx's. "I missed you as well, young master. Ladybug and Chat Noir have done well to keep the Miracle Box safe but they are not _our_ chosen."  
  
"Master Fu's really gone, then," Nino says, even softer, and closes his eyes when Wayzz nods. "I figured but I'd still hoped, you know?"  
  
"I know." Wayzz jumps back into the air, aiming for Nino's shoulder, and he reminds himself that there's no reason for the kwami to hide down here. "You must never lose hope, after all."  
  
Wayzz isn't kidding. People who lose their hope get akumatized, and these days people who get akumatized don't come back. The moment anyone's restored from an akuma Bee is guaranteed to be right back out to play and Bee doesn't let compromised prey get away.  
  
The recently de-akumatized are always compromised.  
  
"I won't lose hope, little dude," Nino assures his kwami. "I promise."


End file.
